Old Lavoye: Picked Up and Moved

How to fine it: drive west through Midwest and turn south along the road that borders the west side of town. Continue south, passing Gas Plant Camp (Stop No. 8). About 2.2 miles south of Midwest, the road forks; just south of this junction and between the two roads is the loaction of Old Lavoye. There are no physical remnants other than some scattered broken glass and ceramics at this historic site. (NE/SW Section 1, T39N-R79W)

Oil Derek

About the site: Also known as Mosher Camp, Lavoye is one of the more famous ghost towns in the Salt Creek Oil Field. Louis Lavoye, A French Canadian, filed on a homestead at this location; with some others, he decided to develop a townsite at the hight of the Salt Creek oil boom. By the fall of 1923, an estimated 1000 people (one source stated 3000) were living in and around this town. A post office operated at Lavoye for about one year, from January 1923 to January 1924. On the evening of December 23, 1923, a fire swept through a portion of the business district on the east side of Main Street, destroying the Triangle garage, the Bank of Salt Creek, a drug store, a furniture store, a jewelry store, and a meat market, as well as a two-story building owned by the Mednick Brothers Clothing Store.

North Map · South Map

Stop 1 A Symbol of Scandal: Teapot Rock · Stop 2 Not a Trace: Teapot Townsite · Stop 3 New Lavoye: The Palm Beach of Wyoming · Stop 4 Teapot Dome (Naval Petroleum Reserve): Watergate of the 1920s · Stop 5 Pumping Station/Storage Tank Facility · Stop 6 Old Lavoye: Picked Up and Moved · Stop 7 The North-South Railroad: Remnants of a Grand Scheme · Stop 8 Gas Plant Camp, Midwest's Major Suburb · Stop 9 Salt Creek Oil Field Interpretive Sign and Oil Derrick · Stop 10 Canadian Camp · Stop 11 Midwest Cemetery · Stop 12 Lewis Camp (Camp No. 3) · Stop 13 Jackass (IBA) Spring · Stop 14 The First Well: Shannon Pool Oil Field; Shannon Camp · Stop 15 A Monument to Engineering: The Midwest Electric Plant · Stop 16 Midwest: Where "Democracy and Fairness Predominates"

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